Though usually shy and soft-spoken, there was no mistaking the first word that 8-year-old Harlem Scott wailed through tears of joy when she turned to see the surprise special guest who stepped on stage during her school's field trip in Luling on Friday morning.
"Mommy!" she wept as she ran to the open arms of U.S. Army Spc. Ralea Scott, 28, in front of about 500 first- and second-graders who applauded and wiped away tears at the Lafon Performing Arts Center.
Ralea Scott's return from a nine-month overseas deployment had been a closely guarded secret, and the surprise reunion was the work of several St. Charles Parish public school officials.
St. Charles Parish Public School officials helped U.S. Army Spc. Ralea Scott, home from a lengthy deployment overseas, surprise her 8-year-old daughter during a field trip to the Lafon Performing Arts Center in Luling, La., on Friday, Dec. 1, 2023.
"I couldn't stop crying," said Lisa Perrin, principal of Harlem's school, Allemands Elementary in Des Allemands. "It was so rewarding to know that she probably got the one thing in the world that she was praying for for the holidays."
Ralea Scott joined the Army after graduating from Hahnville High School in 2013. But February marked the first long-term deployment of her service.
"[Harlem] was used to me being gone for three weeks as opposed to nine months," Scott said.
Scott's mother, Dawn Scott, 52, cared for Harlem during the deployment, which consisted of work as a mechanic, first in Jordan and then Kuwait.
"In the beginning, she was sad," Ralea Scott said of her daughter. "She kept wondering when I was coming home."
U.S. Army Spc. Ralea Scott plants a kiss on the forehead of her daughter, Harlem Scott, 8, after surprising the second-grader with her return following a nine-month deployment on Friday, Dec. 1, 2023.
Harlem and her mother kept in touch with Facetime calls and texts messages. Scott kept up with her daughter's schooling, attending video parent-teacher conferences and participating in online parent groups, Perrin said.
Once Scott confirmed her return date, she asked Harlem's school if they would help her surprise her daughter. Allemands Elementary and St. Charles school district officials were all-in.
They arranged for the reunion to occur just before a field trip performance by The Lightwire Theater for the district's elementary school students.
School officials told Harlem and her schoolmates that District Arts Coordinator Joshua Martin was going to randomly draw the name of a student who would help introduce a "special guest" before the performance. Of course, Harlem was always going to be that student.
U.S. Army Spc. Ralea Scott, center, stands with her daughter, Harlem, left, and her mother Dawn Scott, right, after surprising them both following her return from a nine-month deployment in the Middle East.
Scott arrived back in the country on Nov. 19 but had to undergo medical clearance in Houston. She said she had to think quickly during video chats with Harlem to keep her return under wraps when the sharp 8-year-old wondered why it was so light outside when it was supposed 3 a.m. in Kuwait.
Scott drove from Houston to Luling Friday, bringing with her a teddy bear outfitted in fatigues. Mother and daughter cried and embraced on stage for several minutes before they were whisked out into the art center's lobby for one last surprise.
Dawn Scott, didn't know her daughter was back in the country, either. Aware of her granddaughter's field trip, school officials conspired and called her to the facility, telling her that Harlem was ill and needed to be picked up.
U.S. Army Spc. Ralea Scott, right, hugs her mother, Dawn Scott, left, after surprising the latter with her return following a nine-month deployment in the Middle East.
When Ralea Scott and Harlem walked out of the auditorium, Dawn Scott spotted her uniformed daughter and screamed with delight and disbelief before running behind a pillar as she wiped away tears.
"You've been here? When did you get in?" Dawn Scott asked, as Ralea Scott made her way over to her mother, and the two embraced.
Harlem, clutching her new teddy bear, watched silently before joining in on their hug.